How does the narrator tell the story from Montag’s point of view ?

(p. 15/6 – 17/31)

Although the narrator speaks about Montag and the events happening around him by using the 3^rd person, the two big parts (15/11-15/16 ; 17/7-17/31) of this section of the book deal only with Montag’s perceptions and emotional reactions to his surroundings. The narration follows his impressions so closely that the reader becomes very connected to Montag’s point of view and identifies with it. This technique is useful to transmit the protagonist’s emotions to the reader and thus to intensify the atmosphere and vividness of the story. This becomes notably recognizable when  the narrator speaks about Montag’s reaction on the two men who exchange his wife’s blood completely, as the narrator even uses “I” instead of  “he” for a short moment, thereby letting the reader get as close to Montag as possible: inside of him. Even when a more external point of view (15/6 ; 16/16-17/16) is employed, where events are more or less reported to deliver information about Montag’s objective situation and thus allowing the reader to understand the relations and the characters clearly, the narrator stays so close to Montag by telling only things happening right around him, that the reader’s link to Montag never diminishes.
author: Patric Koenig